Hollywood Homicide
Revolution Studios | Release Date: June 13, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
17
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It's the ideal capper for a cop comedy with a refreshingly wry, adult and humane attitude. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Like all Shelton's movies, Hollywood Homicide rambles and shambles, and like most of them, it ultimately settles into its own appealing rhythm. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
One of the pleasures of Hollywood Homicide is that it's more interested in its two goofy cops than in the murder plot; their dialogue redeems otherwise standard scenes. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
At its best, "Hollywood" has the breezy irreverence and easy, sunny L.A. atmosphere of Shelton's 1992 "White Men Can't Jump," a buddy-buddy basketball-hustle movie. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Combines silly stuff about life in Los Angeles with buoyant energy, a couple of chases worthy of the Keystone Kops and quick-witted actors playing droll characters with obvious affection.
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A definite improvement on the recent spate of dull action movies, if only because it has such a marked sense of humor about itself and the genre it belongs to. But somehow it never quite finds its center. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
He (Ford) slips into the role as if it were a pair of well-worn loafers, the left inherited from Peter Falk, the right from Clint Eastwood, and then proceeds, with wry nonchalance, to tap-dance, shuffle and pirouette through his loosest, wittiest performance in years. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's bursting with goofy banter, Hollywood in-jokes, sexy love scenes, and chases that go on much too long but have the kind of madcap self-indulgence that makes questions of logic or credibility seem dull-witted. It's a great piece of mindful escapism. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Is it, you know, fun? At times. Yet there's a rote quality to the way this half-dumb, half-sly movie resolves itself into an intentional debauch, a pileup of villainy and heavy metal. The only California dream it leaves you with is one of wretched excess. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Ten minutes in, and the verdict is already clear: This is a flick that goes both ways. It's funny, then it's not; it's cooking, then it isn't; it's different, then it ain't. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
When the movie works, it gleefully skewers the clichés of the buddy cop genre... When it doesn't work, it's exactly what it purports to be lampooning--a lame, boring cop buddy movie. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Though its ending feels protracted--especially the climactic chase--it kept me reasonably distracted. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A film of curiosities and asides, it deliberately eschews plot in favor of character quirk, which is fine in theory and even commendable. But the quirks are lame, the ultimate conflation of story lines is clumsy. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Ford tries very hard to be eccentrically funny -- to the point of forced, slapsticky mugging -- but he looks terrible, his timing is way off and his character is so uptight, abrasive and unappealing that he makes miserable company. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A frustrating blend of the sharply funny and the ploddingly generic. Although he does them well enough, we don’t really need Ron Shelton to give us the same old skidding-U-turn cop-thriller theatrics. He’s a much more distinctive talent than this crass spree allows for. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Inside this numbingly formulaic action comedy there's a small, quirky movie not screaming hard enough to get out--the kind of movie that director and co-writer Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham,” “Tin Cup”) could have had some real fun with. Read full review
50
PremiereAddison MacDonald
The movie is a mess, but Harnett and Ford are likable enough to make Hollywood Homicide a unique addition to the cookie-cutter spectacles that usually grace theaters during the summer months. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Although Ford does not exactly mail in his performance, this is a lazy job, and far from his best work. On top of that, he has no chemistry with co-star (and heartthrob of the moment) Josh Hartnett. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Escapism with a human touch -- it feels lived-in. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Somewhere within all of this there really is a homicide -- a hip-hop industry rub-out that may someday make this movie half of a passable DVD double feature with Nick Broomfield's documentary Biggie and Tupac. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Ultimately, this movie cowritten by Shelton and former L.A. police detective Robert Souza has more laughs than suspense, but not enough of either. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An attempt to merge a semi-jokey buddy movie with a more realistic account of cops' messy private lives, Hollywood Homicide falls short on both counts. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
One of the most lazily scripted, poorly structured, smugly stereotyped star vehicles in recent memory. Bizarrely, this seems to be the point. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Fact is, good looks will go a long way in masking mediocrity, and Hollywood Homicide capitalizes on that fact doubly so: Co-writer/director Ron Shelton’s latest boasts two pretty faces, and all across the country, mothers and daughters sigh alike. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's periodically enlivened by unlikely cameos, including Lou Diamond Phillips as an undercover cop posing as a transvestite hooker and Gladys Knight as a forgotten Motown singer. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
Nothing, in fact, really fits together, most notably the partnership of Ford and Hartnett: Looking weathered yet professional, Ford carries what he can, but pretty and sullen Hartnett barely comes to life, leaving his partner stranded, and straining. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
No one comes out of Hollywood Homicide looking good, but the film fades fast. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Souza and Shelton throw in all kinds of ridiculous devices they learned in second-year screenwriting class. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Hollywood Homicide is about murder, all right: the wholesale slaughter of anything funny, original or even vaguely logical. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Hollywood Homicide knows it's a dog, and it ain't too proud to beg. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The film doesn't even cut it as cheap escapism. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
By the time it ended, I'd stopped caring. I suspect most moviegoers will do the same. Here's hoping Shelton scurries back to the athletic world in a hurry. Read full review
25
New York PostMegan Lehmann
There's little action in this snail-paced bore, you'll need a high-powered magnifying glass to spot the comedy and the "buddies" have about as much chemistry as a pair of wet socks. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Lands with a thud right from its painfully unfunny prologue and maintains its plodding, exasperating course straight through to its car-chase-and-shootout finale. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a humiliating comedown for Ford, and he looks creaky and grumpy, obviously aware that he is miscast and dreading every scene. Read full review
10
Film ThreatKevin Carr
Yup, Hollywood Homicide”rips off practically every cop movie out there. My god in heaven, did anyone making this film have an original thought in their lives? Read full review
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